Arsenal: The Granit Xhaka conundrum, to start or not to start?

While Unai Emery trusts Granit Xhaka, the fans don’t. He might be the newly-appointed club captain, but does he deserve to start regularly for Arsenal?

When Arsenal signed Granit Xhaka in 2016, the fans, though disappointed to not get the PL-proven N’golo Kante for a similar price, were still excited. After all, Arsenal were getting a young midfielder, probably one of the best deep-lying midfielders in the Bundesliga who was also Borussia Monchengladbach’s youngest ever captain, albeit with a patchy disciplinary record but with evident leadership qualities and a great left foot. He was hailed as the long-sought Patrick Vieira replacement the Gunners had lacked for so long and he seemed to be the kind of player who would add some much-needed bite to the midfield. It seemed like a good signing.

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However, fast forward three seasons and it the majority of fans, both at games and online, have turned against Xhaka. But why the switcharound? What went wrong during those three years to motivate such a wild change in opinion?  Well, to put it simply, his sloppy play has cost Arsenal countless times — most recently, he gave away a needless penalty in the North-London derby –and he is now being consistently outperformed by a 20-year-old Matteo Guendouzi, who barely has 60 professional games under his belt.

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While Xhaka is not all negative, mainly due to his ability to progress the ball forward during build-up and his excellent passing ability, his evident leadership capabilities came into question after the 2-2 draw with Watford, where his  comments led to the fans demanding him to be stripped of captaincy after he ostensibly implied that he and his teammates were ‘scared’.

However, should Torreira be played at the base of midfield in place of Xhaka, it might allow the Swiss to progress further forward up the pitch and show everyone what he’s actually capable of. He does need to cut out the needless aggression and sloppiness out of his game if he wants to win over the fans again, of course, but there are qualities that can be built around. This, though, seems to be more of a pipe dream than a tangible reality. There has been little proof that Xhaka is capable of such performances, bar the odd game here or there.

Nevertheless, Unai Emery continues to place his trust in the Swiss midfielder and he continues to underwhelm with his performances. For now, he might keep his place in the team, but if Sunday’s boos and Arsenal’s subsequent win after him being subbed off against Aston Villa are anything to go by, it might not be long before he’s fallen down the pecking order behind Guendouzi, Torreira, Dani Ceballos and even Joe Willock, whose energetic displays and forward-thinking play make him a safer, dynamic, more well-rounded proposition than Xhaka.

A potential midfield three of Torreira operating as a defensive midfielder, Guendouzi keeping his place because everything Xhaka does, he can do better, and either of Willock or Ceballos as the third midfielder could work very well. These players provide a perfect combination of guile, agility, dynamism and progressive play, with quicker legs to cover ground and their hardworking attitude outweighing Xhaka’s rash defensive contributions.

One can say that time might soon be running out for Xhaka at the Emirates and that if he were to move to Germany or Italy, where the intensity is not as high as the Premier League, he would be a great asset to any team, evident by his excellent display against Frankfurt. However, at the moment, good displays from Xhaka are very rare, and that is something Arsenal cannot afford at this stage.

To conclude, while Xhaka might start regularly because of the fact that he’s the captain and Emery trusts him, whether he can actually justify his place in the side over the others remains to be seen.